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Phyllis Granoff, Illustrating the Bhaktāmarastotra
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have seen only Digambara illustrated manuscripts. None predates the 17th century. Considering the large number of manuscripts of the hymn itself, there are surprisingly few illustrated examples that are known to date. It is also somewhat surprising, given the long history of Jain manuscript paintings, that the known manuscripts are all so late. Much remains to be studied about the tradition of illustrating the Bhaktāmara, and this is a small contribution to what must be a much larger endeavor.
The Michigan manuscript is an outstanding example of late Jain manuscript painting. There are two types of illustrated Bhaktāmara manuscripts. One deals with magic diagrams and the other with illustrations to the verse themselves. I will only be concerned here with the illustrations to the verses. In addition to their esoteric associations with magic formulas and diagrams, every verse of the hymn also came to be associated with a story that vividly describes the miraculous results of reciting a particular verse. These stories, many of which are known from other didactic story collections, were told in commentaries to the verses. Interestingly, the illustrations to the hymn in the manuscripts with which I am familiar do not depict events in the miracle stories, but are intended to illustrate the verses themselves. This is somewhat different from what we see in illustrated manuscripts of other texts, and I should add in recent publications of the hymn that include illustrations. A new Gujarati book, for example, includes a wide range of miracle stories, which it illustrates. Traditionally, among the Svetāmbaras, illustrated manuscripts, for example of the Kalpasūtras or Uttarādhyayanasūtras, also included illustrations of the material in the commentaries in addition to the root text itself, perhaps because of the ease with which such narratives lend themselves to illustrations, in contrast to the more abstract contents of the texts. One of the unique features of the illustrated Bhaktāmara stotra manuscripts that I have examined is the skill which the illustrators have found a way to depict the most abstract concepts, often by relying upon small visual clues within the verses themselves, and at other times making use of commonly accepted metaphors. In their efforts to depict abstractions these painters seem to me to be closer to the sculptors of images of the Jinas that to painters of narrative scenes. The sculptors endeavored to convey the abstract notion of the extraordinary knowledge of the Jina
? A manuscript dated 1773 A.D. has recently been published: Mānatunga, Bhaktamara Stotra (Sacitra). Mahavirji: Jain Vidya Sansthan, 2005. The book has been reviewed by John Cort, ACSAA, 66, Fall/Winter 2006, pp. 15-16. I thank John for a copy of the review and his articles on the Bhaktāmara. John notes in the review, p. 16, that Saryu Doshi in her book, Masterpieces of Jain Painting, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1985, p. 77, in passing mentions illustrations to the hymn and published a black and white photo of a manuscript painted in Bikaner in 1694.
The website of the International Digamber Jain Organization also includes several remarkable Bhaktāmara manuscripts with delicately colored yantras. 9 The hymn has been edited many times. The edition of Professor Hiralal Rasikdas Kapadia in the Sresthi Devacandralālbhāi Jain Pustakoddhāra Series 79, Bombay: Nirnayasagara Press, 1932, contains a commentary with miracle stories. For information on Jain tantra, see the references I gathered for the catalogue, The Victorious Ones, New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009, p. 297.
